Update 8/15/2010 - Maine to Sault Ste Marie

 
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Greetings from Northern Michigan!

No Trader didn’t make a wrong turn. We are cruising for a week or so with our friends Eldon & Dianne on their Grand Banks 42, starting in Sault Ste Marie .

The Bubbles - Jordan Pond-Acadia National Park

Our trip in Trader went very well. After Perry’s Creek we had another wonderful sailing day to Northeast Harbor on Mt Desert Island. Northeast is one of our favorite stops and we spent several days there. We took the bus to Jordan Pond, walked around the pond, had a nice lunch and then walked about 4 miles on the carriage trails to the Brown Mountain trail head where the bus picked us up again. The picture to right is Jordan pond with the bubbles at the end. We climbed them last year.

After a trip to town for the farmer’s market we took a cruise up Somes Sound which is the only natural fiord in the US. Our favorite mooring was occupied so we went over to Cranberry Island where we picked up one of the town moorings for the night.Somes Sound is below.

Somes Sound

The next day it was a long mostly motor to Rockland. After a morning walk to the grocery store, we headed for Teal Island where we rafted up with our friends Larry and Cathy for the night. The next day we had planned to visit relatives in Round Pond, but they were not available and with threatening weather we headed for Boothbay again.

The next stop was Sebasco Resort where we had a nice lunch on the outside patio, used the pool and took an evening walk on the golf course. Sebasco is always a great stop! Then it was back to Portland to get organized for the next trip and the return to Sun Cat.

We had a good dinner with our friends Barb and Stew and did a CYC Wednesday night race on Trader with Steve and Christine and Christine’s kids.(I think we finished third!)

On Thursday we finished packing, visited our old house to say bye to the neighbors and hello to the new owners, cleaned up Trader and then headed to Steve’s for dinner.

Niagara Falls from Cave of the Winds

Then the current road trip started. First it was off to Cape Cod for a few days to see my mother. The next stop was dinner with my sister and husband, stopping for the evening near the Mass/NY border. Then it was on to Niagara Falls where we met up with Bob & Sharon of Catch Me If You Can, who happened to be there in their land yacht. We spent the next day playing tourists, viewing the falls, and doing the Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds trips (and getting quite wet!).The picture to the right is from the hurricane deck of Cave of the winds and the one below is on Maid of the Mist.

Wet but happy crew on Maid of the Mist

That afternoon we drove to Tim & Jans where we stayed for a short visit. The  next day we spent traveling through rural Ontario to Sault Ste Marie, Michigan where we met up with Eldon and Dianne. We played tourist a few days before taking off in the boat. We toured the Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum at Whitefish Point on Lake Superior (Remember the Edmond Fitzgerald??) and spent another day riding an excursion train to Algoma canyon in Ontario.

Canal at the Soo - lock is behind us

Today we went through the Soo lock and motored 15 or so miles into Lake Superior and turned around and went back through the lock.Its always interesting to be a tourist attraction! The picture left is exiting the Soo Lock in Sault Ste Marie. We then proceeded towards the Straits of Mackinac, stopping this evening in Detour Village.